This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

‘Occupy’: peaceful, and puzzling

By Anita Li,

Tues., Oct. 18, 2011

At the height of rush hour, Occupy Toronto protests forced downtown traffic to a standstill Monday evening, as about 100 to 125 people began marching in the streets just after 5 p.m.

The roaming protest was a marked contrast to the calm gathering of demonstrators in St. James Park that morning.

The group left the park shortly before 5 p.m., marching west on King St. E.

“Whose streets? Our streets!” they chanted as they waved homemade signs and banners.

After a brief discussion midstreet, the protesters decided to occupy the intersection of Bay and King Sts. in the heart of the financial district, sitting there for nearly 20 minutes until they moved aside as TTC streetcars approached.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Shouting “join us!” to curious passersby, the demonstrators moved on to Yonge St. and briefly blocked traffic in front of the Eaton Centre before heading north to Dundas St. There, they staged another sit-in, forming a “99%” symbol for the benefit of news helicopters hovering overhead.

The Yonge-Dundas sit-in lasted until 6:30 p.m., when the protesters headed back to their base camp at St. James Park next to the Anglican cathedral at Jarvis and King Sts.

The traffic disruptions were a shift from their tactics earlier Monday.

When an offshoot of the Occupy Toronto group called for a morning protest in the heart of the financial district, many in the park encampment decided not to join in out of a concern that it might signal a more aggressive stance than had been seen in the weekend protests.

But the offshoot protest didn’t even do that. A handful of activists sang “Rockin’ in the Free World” outside the Toronto Stock Exchange before heading on a mini-march around the financial district. They then joined about 200 comrades for a noon rally Ryerson University’s social justice week.

For many, Occupy Toronto has been puzzling. The nature of the protest is unclear. There aren’t any leaders. The general meetings are frequently bogged down by procedural discussions, not issues.

“What we’re seeing is a new movement that doesn’t look like previous movements,” said political activist Judy Rebick, reached by phone at the month-old Occupy Wall Street protest in New York.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

“My generation, we were rebels. We said, ‘We don’t trust anybody over 30’ and ‘The hell with you, we know what’s best.’ ... There’s none of that here,” she said.

Besides the protests, the Occupy movement is about creating a physical space for people to begin talking about how to achieve the kind of society they want, she said.

These discussions, now going on globally, have shifted, said Rebick, from banks and national deficits to how people are suffering from economic inequality.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s beautiful,” she said.

Winnie Ng, who holds the Gindin Chair of Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson, said Torontonians shouldn’t dismiss the Occupy Toronto group.

“It’s still the early days. If you compare it to Occupy Wall Street, there were a number of weeks where they didn’t get much notice,” she said. “And I think, for Toronto, we also need to recognize there are such diverse groups organizing and it’s going to take some growing pains.”

Rebick believes if the message resonates with people, they’ll start showing up to see what’s going on. And that’s what will change things.

Earlier Monday, Occupy Toronto protesters were trying to recruit Ryerson students participating in the university’s social justice week.

The recruitment movement is part of an aggressive outreach plan to increase the Occupy Toronto’s numbers, said Brandon Gray, one of its facilitators.

On Saturday, between 2,000 and 3,000 people were drawn to St. James Park. But by Sunday, those numbers had dwindled to a fraction.

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com